A/N: Okay here's the third chapter! I've gotten a beta and gone back and fixed the first two chapter so hopefully they are up to par, and this chapter and upcoming ones should be much better. I hope you guys like this chapter! Please R&R! :)

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to Rowling. Only this plot is mine :)

Severus groaned as he lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. She winked at me! She was flirting with me, me! Women did not flirt with Severus. He had never had much luck with women. He was not what most women would deem 'conventionally handsome'. He did attract a small number of women, but most of them quickly tired of his tendency to lose himself in his work. And usually they just wanted him for the sizable inheritance his grandmother had left him anyway. As a result, it had been many years since he had been with a woman.

I must have imagined the whole thing, he decided. She could not have been flirting with me. Hermione Granger would not want to be with the old bat of the dungeons. And although he knew this, he could not help the sadness that filled him at that realization.

Pushing away all thoughts of Hermione from his mind, he burrowed deeper under his blanket, hoping

that when he awoke these odd feelings would have finally disappeared.

The next day Severus resolved to find Hermione, give her the book and be done with it... And her. So he kept the book on him, waiting to see her. He decided when he did see her, he would just hand it to her and walk off, no feelings no words.

To his annoyance, he didn't see her all day. By dinner time he was a bit concerned since he had not seen her anywhere around the castle, not even the library in which she spent her days. She is of no consequence to you Severus. Why should you care if you see her or not, he berated himself. And yet, despite his best efforts, he missed seeing her that day. He missed the way, during meals, she would look up, catch his eye, and smile at him as if she cared, as if she liked him.

Unable to put her out of his mind, he finally decided to stop forcing himself to forget her. He tried to accept that it seemed as though he might be having feelings for her.

Later that evening when it was nearing midnight, Severus went down to the kitchens and resolved to wait there for her to come down. He knew she would come to the kitchens eventually, and unless she had one of the house elves bring her food to her room earlier, she must be hungry.

To his immense pleasure, less than thirty minutes into his wait Hermione came into the kitchens. Seeing him, her face broke into a smile. Irritatingly Severus could not help but let his mouth turn up at the corners to give her a small smile, but only a small one. It wouldn't do for his reputation to have people think he was nice.

Coming over, unlike the previous nights, Hermione sat in the chair directly to his left, disconcerting him greatly to have her so near. "Hello Professor, how was your day?" Hermione asked grinning at him.

"Tolerable, Miss Granger." Before he could stop himself he added, "I didn't see you at meals today... Were you ill?" He attempted to say this with an air of nonchalance, as if he didn't actually care, but Hermione saw right through it.

Choosing to spare him the embarrassment, she ignored it. "I was not feeling my best this morning Sir, so I spent the day in my room resting. I'm feeling much better now though."

His brows furrowed a bit at that and then he nodded . "I see. I am... pleased you're feeling better." Severus then picked up the book he had been holding. "Here Miss Granger, I believe I offered you the loan of this book. I should hope you give it back to me in a timely manner," Severus said as he almost shoved the book at her.

Hermione's smile grew. "Oh thank you so much Professor! I'll take good care of it," she said quickly while her eyes were perusing the cover.

Severus watched as she looked the book over before finally saying, "Well, Miss Granger, I hope you enjoy it."

He was standing up to leave, and Hermione looked up quickly. "Of course. Professor, please call me Hermione. I mean, at least when it's just us. It feels a bit stiff for you to be calling me Miss Granger when I'm in my nightclothes and you in your dressing gown," Hermione said, blushing as she looked down.

Severus frowned and then said, "Very well... Hermione." He choked out, "Good night."

"Good night... Severus." Hermione blushed again, looking at him to make sure it was alright for her to use his given name.

He nodded slightly and then quickly walked out of the room.

Oh Gods! He called me Hermione! I called him Severus! What am I doing? What is this? Hermione's mind went into overload trying to determine what was happening between her and the Potions Master. Walking back to her common room, she pondered Severus and knew that regardless of what anyone else thought, she wanted to get to know him better. She knew that he was a good man No one could see past his cold exterior, but she believed that past experiences during his school days had contributed to the cold man he was now. She knew what it was like to be bullied, to be the odd one out constantly, to feel ugly, and to feel as if she did not belong anywhere. She guessed that

everything that James, Sirius, and Remus had done to Severus had probably severely damaged him, and she ached just thinking about how lonely he must have been. Hermione decided then and there that she would not back down from whatever this was between her and Severus, that she would show him that she cared for him. And with this thought in mind, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

The Raven, while being a long poem, was not a long book, and so Hermione had read and re read it several times the next day. It was quite worn, as if Severus had often re read the book or just opened it to a particular page to read a specific stanza.

That night, a few hours after dinner, Hermione made her way down to the dungeons intent on taking the book right to his rooms to return it. Once at the door to his rooms she whispered, "Okay Hermione, you can do this. Just knock and tell him you came to give him back the book, and then let what happens happen." With a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

After what felt like hours, but was in reality only a minute or two, Severus opened the door, his eyes widening slightly in surprise that she was there.

She quickly held the book out. "I wanted to return the book, I really enjoyed it. Thank you for lending it to me Severus," she said smiling shyly at him. Severus took the book, still not saying anything. Finally, after another minute of silence and him staring at her, Hermione looked down in embarrassment. "Well I'll be going then. I just wanted to return your book to you, thank you again."

She started to walk away when Severus finally snapped out of his stupor. "Wait, Miss Gr- Hermione. Would you like to... Come in?" he called out quickly before she had walked

more than five steps.

Hermione looked back and a smile came to her face. "I would love to." She turned and went

back and walked in.

Severus shut the door and looked over to see Hermione wandering over to his bookshelves to read the titles of a few of his many books. He smiled slightly "Would you care for some tea?" he asked as he walked into his small kitchen area.

"Yes, please," Hermione responded, barely looking up from the books. Severus chuckled, she would

be asking any minute to read another of his books. Sure enough "Severus," Hermione called from his sitting room.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Would you mind terribly if I borrowed another of your books?" she asked, unsure if she was

being presumptuous.

"Help yourself," Severus said smirking at the fact that it had taken her less than two

minutes to ask, as he walked back into the room with the tea. She had already settled into a corner of his couch. She set a large book onto the end table next to her and reached for the mug of tea in his hands.

Severus handed her the mug and sat down on the other side of the couch. Hermione took a sip of her tea and then set it down, scooching across the couch so that there were only inches between them. He watched her nervously, waiting to see what she was doing. He relaxed slightly when she stopped moving closer.

"I was wondering Severus, if you would be willing to tell me more about your research for the Cruciatus curse?" Hermione asked, thinking that, besides the fact that she was interested in hearing about it, he would relax a bit more talking about his research. She was right and watched in satisfaction as he relaxed visibly and his eyes lit up in pleasure that she had asked.

Severus began to explain that he had been trying various combinations of herbs and other ingredients but still could not find the right one to stop the potion from causing more harm than good.

"What if," Hermione started, "you added Silverweed, Starthistle, and Asphodel? The Silverweed and

Asphodel would help with the stability and shelf life, and the Starthistle should give the potion permanence, right?" She finished, looking at him waiting for him to tell her she was being ridiculous.

Severus stared at her in shock and then, not saying anything, quickly stood up at grabbed some parchment and his quill and sat at his desk in the corner and started writing furiously.

Hermione walked over and looked over his shoulder to see he was making different calculations. She smiled and went and sat back down on the couch. Opening the book she had pulled from his shelf, she started reading.

Over an hour and a half later Severus finally looked up from his parchment. "There! This just might work Hermione. You are absolutely brilliant, do you know that?" Severus looked over to see Hermione had fallen asleep on the couch still holding his book. He smiled softly at her and went over and picked the book up. Not having the heart to disturb her peaceful sleep, he covered her with a blanket and then went into his own room and fell asleep.

Severus woke with a start to hear screaming, not his screaming. Who was that? Hermione! He jumped up and ran into the other room to see Hermione thrashing about on the couch. He dropped to his knees beside her and shook her. "Hermione, wake up. It's just a dream, it's okay, it's okay. It's just a dream."

Hermione woke up with a gasp and shot up trying to find her wand.

"It's okay Hermione, it's just me. It's Severus," he said quickly trying

to calm her.

"Severus?" Hermione asked, her voice quivering. Her eyes focused on him and filled with tears, "Oh

Severus, it was so awful. They killed you!" Hermione sobbed.

Severus pulled her in his arms "I'm fine, I'm fine. No one is going to kill me. Shhh, shh, I've got you." He comforted her making soothing noises as he rubbed her back. "Come on," he whispered as he slipped his arms under her legs and picked her up to carry her to the bedroom.

Severus set her down on the bed. As he pulled away she held on and pulled him closer to her. "Don't leave me, please." Hermione whispered, sounding broken.

"Okay, I wont leave. I wont leave you Hermione." He moved to the other side of the bed and climbed in beside her. Hermione moved close to him and he pulled her back into his arms, looking

down into her golden brown eyes. She stared up at him and licked her lips. His eyes flicked down to her lips and back to her eyes before leaning in and pressing a kiss to her lips. Hermione leaned up into his kiss, her lips parting as his tongue slipped in to taste her. Severus groaned as he felt her tongue come out tentatively to lick at his bottom lip.

He came back down to Earth. Pulling away he looked down at her and sighed pulling her closer as she laid her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head and fell asleep wondering what on earth he was going to do, because he was falling in love with this witch.